A novice philosopher turned equestrian…

A Quick Quickie

In the past few days I have been fortunate enough to have a couple of productive riding lessons. The first was with a dressage rider I am currently doing some part time work for. She plonked me on one of the horses on her yard and got us working around the extremely massive arena. She even forced me to look at myself in the rather unsettling mirrored wall at one end. Percy (the horse) was lovely though and moved very nicely for me. And when I did dare look in the mirror, he looked very pretty.

Following that, I had a lesson with Dakota and Kelly. The aim of the lesson was to get a nice lot of video so that I could put together a little combination and have hard proof of me riding. Dakota, however, had other ideas and dropped me over his shoulder within thirty seconds of us walking away from the mounting block. Charming. Fortunately I landed well and was able to jump to my feet and chase after him leaving a trail of expletives in my wake. Kelly just laughed and made us work doubly hard for the rest of the lesson while she filmed away. Her camera skills were up to scratch though as we got some really nice bits of video and I was able to piece together a four minute film of me and Dakota. Lovely stuff.

It’s scary to see yourself riding. I find it rather cringeworthy and uncomfortable really. I know it’s good for you, but it’s not easy to watch yourself without seeing every single thing you hate about yourself right there, caught on camera. Nightmare! I had to watch bits over and over though as I filtered through the clips so that I could put together the better ones. I think perhaps I got desensitised after a while because I certainly stopped wincing after the third or fourth time.

I am not bruised at all from my fall. Maybe I am getting better at falling off. Hurrah?

Aside from that jazzle, tomorrow Ben and I are off up to the Welsh Mountain Zoo and then on to Chester with Angus. His 21st birthday is on Saturday so we’re spending the weekend with him and heading off to a Pimms party on Saturday evening. Exciting stuff. And oh so very middle class darling. Absolutely splendid. I’m looking forward to it anyway.

And the following 12 days are going to be raaaather busy for me. So much to do, so little time, so many feelings and worries and possibilities and fears and hopes.